Y 
39O 



BANCROFT 
LIBRARY 



THE LIBRARY 

OF 

THE UNIVERSITY 
OF CALIFORNIA 




28th CONGRESS, 
1st Session. 



[SENATE.] 




[345] 



IN EXECUTIVE SESSION SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. 




MAY 23, 1844. ^ 

Read. 

MAY 24, 1844. 
Injunction of secrecy removed. 

MAY 28, 1844. 

"Ordered to be printed for the use of the Senate. 



To the Senate of 4 he United States; 

Your resolution of the 18th instant, adopted in Executive session, ad- 
dressed to the Secretary of the Treasury ad interim, has been communi- 
cated to me by that officer. While I cannot recognise this call, thus n* '.tie 
on the head of a department, as consistent with the constitutional rights of 
the Senate when acting in its Executive capacity, which in such case can 
only properly hold correspondence with the President of the United Mates, 
nevertheless, from an anxious desire to lay before the Senate all such in- 
formation as may be necessary to enable it with full understanding to act 
upon any subject which may be before it, I herewith transmit communi- 
cations which have been made to me by the Secretaries of the War and 
Navy Departments, in full answer to the resolution of the Senate. 

JOHN TYLER. 

WASHINGTON, May 23, 1844. 



[Copy of fte resolution above referred to.] 

IN EXECUTIVE SESSION. 
IN SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, MAY 18, 1844. 

Resolved^ That the Secretary of the Treasury be directed, with as little 
delay as possible, to communicate to the Senate whether any and what 
sums of money have been drawn from the Treasury, to be expended to 
carry into effect the orders of the War and Navy Departments, made since 
the 12th day of April last, for stationing troops or increasing the military 
force upon or near the frontiers of Texas and the Gulf of Mexico, and 
for placing a naval force in the Gulf of Mexico, with any other expendi- 
tures connected with those movements; and that he state particularly 
under what law of Congress and from what appropriation such moneys 
have been taken from the Treasury for expenditure. 

Attest: 

ASBURY DICKINS, Secretary. 



[ 345 ] 2 

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, May 20, 1844. 

SIR : I have the honor to enclose the copy of a rd|o11tltg)i| adopted by 
the Senate in Executive session on the 18th instant, and to request that you 
will be pleased to furnish this department with the means of answering it, 
so far as regards the operations under the direction of your department. 
I have apprized the Senate that your requisitions upon the Treasury do 
not furnish the necessary information, and that the application of funds 
drawn upon them can only be ascertained by this department, upon the 
adjustment of the accounts of your disbursing officers; but that I have 
applied to you for information, and will submit it as soon as it shall be re- 
ceived. 

I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

McC. YOUNG, 

Secretary of the Treasury ad interim, 
Hon. JOHN Y. MASON, 

Secretary of the Navy. 



NAVY DEPARTMENT, May 22, 1844. 

SIR : I have received your communication, dated on the 20th instant^ 
enclosing a copy of a resolution of the Senate in Executive session, adopted 
on the 1 8th instant, by which the Secretary of the Treasury is directed to 
communicate information whether any and what sums of money have been 
drawn from the Treasury, to be expended as therein set forth, and inform- 
ing me that you have apprized the Senate that my requisitions on the 
Treasury do not furnish the necessary information, but that you had ap- 
plied to me for information, and will submit it as soon as received. 

I am not aware of any law or usage which makes it proper that the 
Treasury Department shall be made the medium of communication be- 
tween this department and either House of Congress. But, as I desire that 
the information asked for shall not be withheld on any point of official in- 
tercourse, I shall immediately communicate to the President of the United 
States answers to the inquiries propounded by the Senate in their resolu^ 
tion, to be disposed of as he may deem proper. 

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

J. Y. MASON. 

McC. YOUNG, Esq., 

Secretary of the Treasury ad interim. 

. 

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, May 21, 1844. 

SIR : I have the honor to submit to you the enclosed resolution of the 
Senate, adopted in Executive session on the 18th instant. 

This department not having the means within itself to furnish tho in- 
formation called for, copies of the resolution have been referred to the 
War and Navy Departments; and I now have the honor to submit it to you, 
for such directions as you may deem proper to give in relation to it. 
I am, with great respect, your obedient servant, 

McCLINTOCK YOUNG, 
Secretary of the Treasury ad interim, 
The PRESIDENT. (0ia 



3 [ 345 ] 

NAVY DEPARTMENT, May 22, 1844. 

SIR : I have received from McC. Young, Esq., Secretary of the Treasury 
ad interim, a communication, dated on the 20th instant, covering a copy 
of d.' resolution of the Senate of the United States, adopted in Executive 
session on the ISth instant, of which I have the honor to transmit here- 
with copies. 

As the information was not asked for by the Secretary ad interim for 
use in the administration of his department, in settlements with the dis- 
bursing officers of this department, I addressed to him a reply, of which I 
transmit a copy. 

Animated by a sincere desire that the information sought for by the 
Senate in their resolution shall be communicated without delay, I have 
the honor respectfully to state that the vessels employed in the Gulf of 
Mexico, and those which it is contemplated to order there by this depart- 
ment, since the 12th of April last, belong to the home squadron, to which 
no additions have been made, except of the steamer Union, which was in- 
tended to be so attached without reference to the service in that particular 
part of the cruising ground of the squadron ; and of the brig Lawrence, 
which was built for the Gulf service, and whose presence, as soon as her 
repairs can be completed, is rendered necessary by disturbances in Cuba 

and Hayti. Bancroft LiDjan 

That no requisitions have been made on the Treasury tor money to be 
expended otherwise than to meet the ordinary expenses of the vessels of 
the home squadron, and no others are contemplated. That these requisi- 
tions and expenditures are by virtue of the law making annual appropria- 
tions for the naval service. The amount of expenditure under each head 
of appropriation cannot be stated with any degree of accuracy until the 
purser's accounts are returned and settled ; but no authority has been 
given, nor is any contemplated to be given, for expenditures^beyond the 
usual expenses of the vessels thus in commission on duty in any part of 
the cruising ground of the squadron, which, by definite arrangements 
made in October, 1842, embraces the Gulf of Mexico and the West Indies. 

I have the honor to be, with great respect, your obedient servant, 

J. Y. MASON. 

The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



WAR DEPARTMENT, May 23, 1844. 

SIR : I acknowledge the receipt of your note of the date of the 20th in- 
stant, enclosing to me a copy of a resolution of the Senate of the United 
States, adopted in an Executive session on the 18th, calling upon the Sec- 
retary of the Treasury to communicate to that body "whether any and 
what sums of money have been drawn from the Treasury, to be expended 
to carry into effect the orders of the War and Navy Departments, made 
since the 12th day of April last, for stationing troops or increasing the mil- 
itary force upon or near the frontiers of Texas and the Gulf of Mexico." 

Your note also informs me that you " have apprized the Senate that my 
requisitions upon the Treasury do not furnish the necessary information :" 
that you have applied to me for that "information, and will submit it as 
soon as it shall be received." 



[ 345 ] 4 

It appears that the resolution to which your note relates, and of which 
you enclose me a copy, was not only passed by the Senate when in Exec- 
utive session, but calls upon the Treasury Department alone for the re- 
quired information. In view of these two circumstances, and believing 
myself to be justified by the usage of official intercourse, I deem it .1 be 
my duty to say that I cannot acknowledge the Treasury Department to be 
the proper medium of communication between the Senate of the United 
States and the department under my charge, in relation to Executive busi- 
ness. 

I am not disposed, however, on this point of official intercourse, to with- 
hold the information called for by the resolution of the Senate ; and impel- 
led by the desire that the demand should be fully met, so far as the admin- 
istration of the affairs of this department is concerned, I shall immediately 
make to the President of the United States a report containing answers to 
all the inquiries embraced in the resolution in question. 

I am, sir, very respectfully^ your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM WILKINS. 

McC. YOUNG, Esq., 

Secretary of the Treasury ad interim. 



WAR DEPARTMENT, May 23, 1844. 

SIR : I have the honor to enclose you a copy of my note of this day, ad- 
dressed to McC. Young, Esq., Secretary of the Treasury ad interim, in 
answer to a communication received from him, dated on the 20th instant, 
under cover of which he transmitted to me a copy of the resolution of the 
Senate of the United States, adopted when in Executive session, upon the 
18th instant. 

My note to Mr. Young will explain to you the reasons by which I am 
governed in adopting the course of communicating directly with you on 
the subject of the resolution of the Senate to which I have referred. 

In answer, therefore, to the inquiry made by the Senate, " whether any 
and what sums of money have been drawn from the Treasury, to be ex-i. 
perided to carry into effect the orders of the War Department, made since 
the 12th day of April last, for stationing troops or increasing the military 
force upon or near the frontiers of Texas and the Gulf of Mexico/' I have 
the honor to report to you, that no other " sums of money will be expended 
to carry into effect the orders of the War Department, made since the 
12th day of April last, for stationing troops or increasing the military force 
upon or near the frontiers of Texas or the Gulf of Mexico," than such as 
are rendered necessary to defray the cost of transportation. All supplies 
of the troops, to which they are entitled, must be furnished to them, where- 
soever they may be stationed. In this respect, therefore, there is no novel 
expenditure. 

The contracts for transporting the 3d and 4th regiments of infantry from 
Jefferson barracks, Missouri, to Natchitoches, Louisiana, have been re- 
ceived by the Quartermaster General, and they stipulate for the payment 
of eight thousand one hundred dollars for the transportation of the two 
regiments between those points. The economy with which this ser- 
vice has been performed will be understood by a recurrence to the cost of 



5 [ 345 ] 

the transportation of the 6th regiment of infantry between the same points 
in 1842, which amounted to fourteen thousand dollars. 

The transportation from Natchitoches to Fort Jesup will be done prin- 
cip~My, if not altogether, by the public teams. 

Several wagons and harness have been purchased for the use of the 
troops on the Southwestern frontier. They would have been ordered, in 
any event, as necessary to the service ; but the movement of the troops to 
the frontier of Louisiana hastened the order, perhaps, three months sooner 
than it would otherwise have been issued. 

It is very obvious, and therefore hardly necessary for me to remark, al- 
though falling within the range of the inquiry as to the money expended 
" for stationing troops or increasing the military force upon or near the fron- 
tiers of Texas," that the cost of the transportation of the force put into motion 
by my orders towards the frontier has been of course nothing more than the 
usual expenditure attendant upon any change of position of our troops, and 
for which ordinary military service annual appropriations are made by Con- 
gress, [t may also be observed, that the disbursement for the transporta- 
tion of the 3d regiment of infantry from the vicinity of St. Louis was 
consequent upon the propriety of relieving the 2d regiment of dragoons, 
whose services would not be longer required in garrison at Fort Jesup, 
upon their being remounted under the provisions of the recent act of Con- 
gress. When they shall be so equipped, their proper duties as mounted 
troops would require that they should be detached from this comparatively 
interior position, to occupy the more remote and important posts along our 
extensive line of frontier bordering upon the Indian country, for the pur- 
pose of affording protection to the inhabitants of the remote Western and 
Southwestern States against Indian incursions, and to restrain, as far as 
possible, the several savage tribes from committing aggressions upon each 
other. , 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM WILKINS, 

Secretary of War. . 

To the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



